Kevin De Bruyne didn’t have the greatest week. For starters he’s gone on record to say he hates the UEFA Nations League calling the tournament “glorified friendlies”, then he and Belgium got embarrassed at home in a 4-1 defeat to the Netherlands on Friday and to top it all off a De Bruyne nutmeg video has gone viral.
The Premier League's relegation battle took another dramatic twist Sunday with Burnley's 1-0 defeat to Tottenham and Leeds United's improbable 1-1 draw against Brighton seeing Jesse Marsch's side climb to the safety of 17th while Burnley fell to 18th.
Elsewhere, Everton came undone at Goodison Park with red cards for both Jarrad Branthwaite and Salomón Rondón to finish with nine men in a 3-2 defeat to Brentford, meaning the Toffees are still right in the thick of it.
ESPN's SportsCenter doesn't usually show soccer highlights — preferring to show incessant home runs and slam-dunks that look like mirror images of every other home run and slam-dunk — but when it does, you can rest assured that it's a 40-yard banger or impossible bicycle kick from range.
On Saturday night, trailing St. Croix 2-1 in USL2 play, the Des Moines Menace's Fernando Garcia got the attention of SportsCenter with a flying golazo from nearly 15 yards out.
It came in at No. 3 in the Top 10.
That's it. We've seen enough to hand out today's Global Goal of the Day Award™.
While we foolishly slept through the early hours of Tuesday morning in America, the Malaysia Super League was busy producing a 3-2 classic between Kuala Lumpur City and Penang FC, featuring an otherworldly scissor-kick/match-winner from Kuala Lumpur's Zhafri Yahya.
Jordy Alcívar scored on a corner kick in the 11th minute and Charlotte FC held off late bids from Atlanta United for a 1-0 victory Sunday afternoon in Charlotte, N.C.
Kristijan Kahlina recorded six saves in the shutout as Charlotte avenged a 2-1 loss last month in Atlanta.
Charlotte (3-4-0, 9 points) got a boost from the early goal and sustained that momentum for long stretches. Atlanta (3-2-1, 10 points) seemed unable to overcome lineup changes necessitated by a recent rash of injuries.
Vinícius Júnior's transformation this season has been well documented. The 21-year-old is now one of LaLiga's finest finishers and far more efficient in the final third, while his combination play with Ferland Mendy, Toni Kroos and Karim Benzema from Real's left-hand side makes for some of the most exciting viewing in football.
Chelsea played its first home match since owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK government and disqualified by the Premier League — leaving the club in limbo and immediately needing a new owner — on Sunday, and it was fittingly against Newcastle, which has been steadily climbing the table since its own new owners flexed their financial might in the January window.
We're just two weeks away from the start of the Women's Champions League quarterfinals now, where two Frauen-Bundesliga clubs remain — Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg. Bayern returned to the top spot in its domestic league with seven matches remaining following a 6-0 pummeling of Köln on Sunday, although Wolfsburg remains only two points back and maintains a game in hand.
Yimmi Chará scored a bicycle-kick goal in the 78th minute as the Portland Timbers rallied for a 2-2 tie with the visiting New England Revolution in both teams' Major League Soccer season opener Saturday night.
Dairon Asprilla also scored for the Timbers, who overcame 1-0 and 2-1 deficits in a driving rainstorm. Portland goalkeeper Aljaž Ivačič made five saves, including tipping a header from Adam Buksa just over the crossbar late in second-half stoppage time. Brandon Bye and Sebastian Lletget scored for the Revolution.
The Super Eagles of Nigeria are now favorites at the Africa Cup of Nations after defeating Guinea-Bissau 2-0 on Wednesday to become the only team to make it through the group stage in Cameroon with a perfect record.
The form of Leicester City striker Kelechi Iheanacho has sent a message across Africa — he scored the match-winner against Egypt and provided a beautiful assist on Wednesday's opening goal — but the player to watch has been Nantes winger Moses Simon.